Ninja, Rick and Morty, and rapper Logic held a Fallout 76 stream last night and the results were excruciating. Intended to showcase the upcoming multiplayer RPG, Bethesda clearly hoped that throwing together a bunch of relevant pop culture figures would create magic. In reality, the lack of chemistry between the hosts resulted in three hours of Rick and Morty voice actor Justin Roiland trying to crack jokes, while Ninja and Logic quietly ambled through the wasteland.
The problems with the stream were numerous. With Roiland’s voiceover work for Rick and Morty being animated, the on-screen action was 10-15 seconds behind the commentary. This, coupled with weird jumps forward in time, resulted in the chat suggesting that it was pre-recorded. (Somehow, it wasn’t.)
Logic, positioned a good couple of meters away from his webcam, had hooked up a Blue Yeti microphone for the stream yet was using his PlayStation mic. Rick and Morty’s stream dropped due to technical difficulties, before going back online and a giant overlay popping up for a few minutes.
But the technical difficulties were negligible when it came to the quality of the stream itself. Fallout 76 is a co-op, online RPG, so logic dictates that it’s best enjoyed alongside friends. Unfortunately, the marketers responsible for the stream overlooked this in favor of throwing together three popular personalities, who had seemingly never spoken to one another before going live, and then trusting them to ad-lib their way to an entertaining video. They did not succeed.
It’s difficult to place the blame on Ninja, Logic, or Roiland considering the circumstances, but let’s give it a shot anyway. Roiland desperately tried to improvise throughout the stream, eventually stumbling onto an unfortunate joke about handicapped superheroes being useless:
Around the two-hour mark, Roiland gives up on his efforts to pull the stream back from the dead, which devolves into Morty discussing the quality of the game’s rocks. In an attempt to contribute to this gripping conversation, Ninja asks for the name of the science that studies rocks. “Paleontology,” Logic responds.
Logic, shrouded in darkness throughout the stream while sipping on a scotch, remains a stoic and unshakeable presence. Roiland’s vamping doesn’t generate so much as a sympathetic titter from the rapper, who only becomes enlivened when asking his co-hosts to do their best Jamaican accents. Eventually, and mercifully, the gang switches gears to Christopher Walken impressions.
Ninja attempted to keep things on-track by focusing on the game, pulling his branded Fallout 76 hoodie above his head and looking like Sonic the Hedgehog about to rob a convenience store.
Because I hate myself, I spent three hours watching this thing. If I knew nothing about Fallout 76 prior to watching, I’d still be none the wiser. I can understand the belief that throwing together a ragtag bunch of popular personalities would result in success, but the unique selling point of Fallout 76 is that it’s Fallout but with your friends. Watching this stream was like watching three people being trapped in a difficult car journey together.
I don’t want to think about how much money Bethesda splashed out on bringing Roiland, Ninja, and Logic together, but whatever the sum, it wasn’t worth it.
If you want to subject yourself to the stream, you can watch all 3 hours, 17 minutes, and 40 seconds of it below:
